City Disputes Road Suit Allegations

The city attorney’s office Wednesday disputed allegations that it failed to act on evidence that two developers had misled the city.

The $661-million suit over the controversial Borchard Road extension--filed Wednesday in Van Nuys against two Dos Vientos developers--specifically shields the city against liability. But it was filed under a “private attorney general” statute, which allows a private citizen to enforce public rights when the government has failed to act.

Assistant City Atty. Jim Friedl said the city had reviewed the allegations in the suit against the developers--Miller Brothers Investments of Calabasas and Operating Engineers Pension Trust of Pasadena--and did not find grounds upon which the city could take action.

“The matter was brought to the city’s attention by the same firm that filed this lawsuit and set forth a few facts that they believed might indicate fraudulent conduct,” Friedl said. “We looked into those, and in our opinion we did not feel that they rose to a level of actionable fraud.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney Ed Masry, however, said it was the city’s inaction that prompted him to file suit.

“We were waiting to see whether or not the city attorney’s office would make the move,” Masry said.

The suit, filed by former City Council candidate Laura Lee Custodio and the citizens’ group Save Open Space, alleges the developers misled the council before it approved the design of the Borchard Road extension in July 1996. The road, which will feed the planned 2,350-unit Dos Vientos housing project in Newbury Park, includes a 12% slope--7% steeper than city codes ordinarily allow.

Representatives of the Miller Brothers were unavailable for comment. Operating Engineer attorneys declined to comment on the suit, other than to characterize it as “frivolous” and say it “appears that it was filed for a political purpose.”